Herlin Hsieh Chen receives the 2024 Taiwan Environmental Protection Lifetime Achievement Award

IPEN offers our warm congratulations to Herlin Hsieh Chen, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Watch Institute as he recently received the 2024 Taiwan Environmental Protection Lifetime Achievement Award.

Herlin Hsieh Chen shared the following award speech, which was translated into English:

“The award I received today represents the affirmation of the achievement of Taiwan Watch by NGOs Environment Conference, not just of me personally. Because if I have achieved anything, I didn’t do it alone. I owe it to all those supporting Taiwan Watch, the colleagues who work for Taiwan Watch, and the individuals, communities and groups who work with Taiwan Watch.

Taiwan Watch is a tiny organization. In order to exert its influence on society and make the goal of protecting both the environment and ecology, it is self-proclaimed as a catalyst for social revolution, hoping to bring the truth, the arguments, the knowledge we have discovered, and the values society should retain, through various channels, to raise public awareness of the environment protection and lower the barrier for revolution. Together with the cooperation of individuals who work for a better society in different positions, we guide the country in a positive direction.

Yet it’s a shame that even if Taiwan Watch has any achievements, no matter how large or small, it’s nonsense compared to the rate of environmental degradation. Therefore, today's award is not so much to affirm the achievements of Taiwan Watch, but rather to recognize the importance of the issues that Taiwan Watch is concerned about and advocated.  Through this award, the environmental community hopes to transmit its serious concern on the issues to society and decision-makers from all walks of life.

In short, our society has been consuming too much material and energy to satisfy our desires, large or small. Economic activities, especially industrial production and the pursuit of estate, have consumed lots of our lands, electricity, and water resources,  discharging too many pollutants into the air and water bodies, and generating a lot of waste, which has exceeded the limits of how the environment can provide us with a livable quality of life.

With all this happening, It takes only two or three generations, and the beauty of the environment we saw as children gradually disappears.

We are already living in a cement jungle, on waste piles, and there is probably bottom ash from incinerators under the road we drive every day. These wastes contain high levels of toxic dioxin, polychlorinated benzene, PFAS, brominated flame retardants and microplastics, and all kinds of heavy metals that have been added to plastic products;

From visible plastic waste to microplastics which must be recognized by a microscope,  plastic has been scattered across our parks, fields, beaches, rivers, and oceans. Plastic, although hardly decomposable, still sheds, breaks down, becomes smaller, nanometer-size, and can enter our bloodstream through the food chain.

Similarly, various toxic chemicals, considered magical in the past, are active around our lives, such as PFAS, which is claimed to be oil- and water-proof, have been widely used in greasy food paper bags, textiles, firefighting foams, cosmetics, and detergent. These toxic substances, unnecessary yet popular in the market, make their way through the production, consumption, and disposal of waste. These substances run into the environment, follow the paths of the food chain, water, and air, and eventually enter our bodies, making a problem for the birth of future children, and even a bigger problem if they make it into this world.

Our bodies have become the home of waste and toxic substances that affect our blood circulation, hinder physiological functions, and weaken intelligence, concentration, and creativity, those capabilities people are proud of, through many generations.

We don't want everyone to go back to ancient times, we just hope that society slows down; but the root problem is that economic entities won’t stop, for fear of being eliminated by competitors. But if we don't slow down, humanity will eventually perish.

We humbly request that governments should respect ecological limits, and environmental carrying capacity, and cap the total amount of water, electricity, land use and waste, empty space, and water pollution in industries, and reduce the pollution year by year to the extent that future generations can tolerate. Within the limit of total volume control, help the industry transformation; first counsel the factories that have made enough money, have finished depreciation, and live in the Red Sea to cut prices and compete with little profit to withdraw from the market; reduce the scale of the industry, and invest in industries that have low material and energy demand, such as clean production or eco-tourism.

We do have the opportunity to reduce the scale of the industry.

 In order to produce more than 20 million tons of steel per year, we import huge amounts of scrap steel, iron ore, and coal mines each year, consume a lot of energy, up to 12 percent of industrial electricity; then export a third of the steel, leaving six million tons of steel stoves to be landfilled, and account for about 15 percent of the country's total carbon emissions, with PM2.5 emission, half of the country's dioxin emission, about 20 percent of aluminum and mercury. Now, the global steel industry’s capacity is too large and oversupply.

 In order to produce up to 13 million tons of plastic per year and an incalculable amount of chemicals, we import extensive oil every year and use a lot of toxic substances in the production. The use of the top ten toxic chemicals alone is 13.34 million tons in 2022. The most toxic benzene that causes blood cancer, with an annual amount of 2.29 million tons. Vinyl chloride that causes liver cancer is used to make the No.3 toxic plastic PVC, its annual consumption is 1.68 million tons. These volatile organic substances spill out from the connection of the pipeline equipment, when they touch fire, burn, and explode to produce more toxic substances, posing a serious threat to the health and life of residents near the Petrochemical Industrial District. The use of the top eight toxic chemicals, when released into air, water, waste, and soil, accounts for almost 440 tons (2022 data), while the plastic and rubber manufacturers (excluding upstream raw material manufacturers) consume 3.1 billion KWh (2020 data). The petrochemical industry also consumes a lot of water, drying the Jhuoshuei River out.

As a result, the petrochemical industry consumes a lot of water, and electricity, and releases a variety of toxic substances every year, producing 13 million tons of plastic a year. But nearly 80% of the plastic is exported to earn foreign exchange, and profits are getting thinner due to the overproduction of plastic globally.

Not that we don’t have any chance to turn the tide.

The immediate crisis is huge. Not only extreme climate, but the contamination of four PFASs in water bodies alone has broken the planet’s boundary of chemical pollution. Countless microplastics and other toxic chemicals pose a threat to humanity even greater than climate change. Even if we can convert all electricity usage to green energy, it won't help against these toxic threats!

When facing a crisis of this magnitude, any species would run immediately, let alone human beings who claim to be the intelligence of all! We must drop the obsession with pursuing wealth, and we have to show the determination to face the unprecedented crisis that is created by us, 2 or 3 generations! Earth cannot grow, economy can’t grow off the limit. This is the basic concept of sustainable development. Resources are limited, it’s not right to deplete an entire lake for only casual fishing. Let human activities reasonably use resources through legal norms, is the responsibility of politicians and a manifestation of the collective wisdom of society.”

This is Herlin Hsieh Chen original speech: 

得獎感言/謝和霖

今天得到的這個獎，代表著主辦單位對看守台灣的肯定，而不只是對我個人的肯定。因為若說我有任何成就，都不是我個人單獨可以完成的，還要歸功於所有看守台灣的支持者、為看守台灣工作的同仁以及和看守台灣合作的個人、社區與團體。

看守台灣是個小小的團體，為發揮對社會的影響力，達成保護環境生態的目的，自許為社會改革的觸媒，希望能把我們看到以及絞盡腦汁與力氣挖掘出來的真相、整理出來的論述、學習到的知識、以及我們認為這個社會應保有的價值，透過各種管道的傳播，提昇大眾環境意識，降低改革的能量門檻；同時集結在不同崗位上為社會努力的工作者，齊心協力促使國家往正向發展。

然而汗顏的是，即使看守台灣有任何的成就，不管多大多小，和環境生態惡化速度相比，實在微不足道。因此今天這個獎，與其說肯定看守台灣，倒不如說是肯定看守台灣所關注、倡議的議題是多麼重要；代表著環保界對這問題的嚴正關注，要透過這個獎，提醒社會與各界決策者們的正視。

簡而言之，台灣社會已經吃太撐，為了滿足大大小小的慾望，吃下了過量的物質與能源。經濟活動，尤其是工業生產與房地產的追逐，所耗用的土地、用電與用水，排放的空污、水污與廢棄物，已經超過環境生態能提供我們宜居生活品質的限度。

而這一切，只花兩三個世代的時間，我們兒時所見的美麗，已經越來越少。

我們已經活在水泥叢林中、廢棄物堆裡，腳下的道路，底下可能就是焚化爐底渣，裡頭含有劇毒戴奧辛、多氯聯苯、PFAS、溴化阻燃劑與塑膠微粒，以及各種曾經被添加於日常塑膠用品中的重金屬；

從肉眼可視的廢塑膠到必須用顯微鏡辨識的塑膠微粒，已經散布在我們的公園、農田、海灘以及河川大海中。塑膠雖然難以分解，卻會緩慢脫落、分解，越變越小，且已經小到奈米級，可以透過食物鏈進入我們的血液；

同樣地，曾被視為神奇化學物質的各種有毒化學品，活躍於我們的生活周遭，比如號稱可防油防水的PFAS，已經廣泛用於防油紙袋、紡織品、消防泡沫、化妝品與清潔劑中。這些毒性物質，透過各種只是為錢而不見得必要的用品，透過這些用品的生產製造、消費使用與廢棄處理，跑到環境中，循著食物、水與空氣的各種路徑，進入我們的身體，讓未來世代能否誕生都成問題，若能誕生可能是更大的問題！

我們的身體已成為廢棄物與毒性物質的歸宿，它們影響著我們的血液循環，妨礙體內生命物質的生理功能，影響著人類引以為傲的智力、專注力與創造力，影響力不止於這個世代，而是世世代代。

我們不是要大家退回遠古時代，我們只是希望這個社會的腳步能緩下來；但所有問題根源是，那些驅動大大小小經濟體往前滾動的力量，會因為怕競爭者淘汰而不敢緩下來，但若是大家都不緩下來，人類終究自取滅亡。

我們卑微地請求、呼籲，政府應尊重生態限制、把守環境的涵容能力，對產業用水、用電、用地與廢棄物、空汙、水污進行總量管制，逐年削減到未來世代可以容忍的程度。在總量管制限度內，讓產業汰舊換新，先輔導已經賺夠錢、折舊完畢、活在紅海中削價競爭已無多少利潤可言的工廠退出市場、縮減產業規模，把手頭還有的資金、人力與土地，投向清潔生產或生態觀光等對物質與能源需求低的產業。

而我們不是沒有削減產業規模的機會。

為了生產每年兩千多萬噸的鋼材，我們每年進口大量的廢鋼、鐵礦與煤礦，消耗大量的能源，高達百分之十二的工業用電；然後再把三分之一的鋼材出口，留下六百萬噸左右的鋼鐵爐碴到處找洞埋、還有佔全國整體15％左右的排碳、以及隨著PM2.5跑出來、佔全國排放量一半左右的戴奧辛、二成左右的鉛、汞。而目前全球鋼鐵業產能已經過大、供過於求。

為了生產每年高達1300萬噸的塑膠以及數量難估的各種化學品，我們每年進口大量的石油，並在生產過程中，用到大量的毒性物質。光是前十大毒性化學物質在2022年的使用量就高達1334萬噸，其中排名第一的是會造成血癌的苯，年用量高達229萬噸；會造成肝癌、用來製造三號毒塑膠PVC的氯乙烯，年用量也高達168萬噸，排名第五。這些會從管線設備的接縫中溢散出來、遇火會燃燒爆炸產生更毒物質的揮發性有機物，對石化工業區附近的居民身體健康與生命安全帶來嚴重威脅。光是使用量前八大毒性化學物質釋出到空氣、水體、廢棄物與土壤等介質中的數量，即將近440噸（2022年數據），而光是塑橡膠製造業本身（不計上游原料製造業）的耗電量，就高達31億度電（2020年數據），同時石化業也消耗了大量的用水，讓濁水溪成為乾枯的河流。

結果這個每年消耗我們大量用水、用電，釋出多種毒性物質的石化產業，每年生產1300萬噸的塑膠，有將近八成出口賺外匯，且利潤因為全球生產過度而越來越微薄。

所以我們不是沒有轉身的機會。

而眼前的危機十分巨大。不僅是極端氣候，光是四種PFAS在水體中的散布，就已經撐破涵容化學污染的地球界線，加上無數的塑膠微粒與其他有毒化學品，這些人造物質對人類的威脅，甚至遠大於氣候變遷。即使我們把目前的用電都轉換成綠能，對這些毒性威脅，也無濟於事！

任何物種，見了眼前這麼大的危機，都知道要逃跑，何況自許為萬物之靈的人類！我們必須戒除對金錢、的癮頭，必須展現前人所未有的魄力，面對前人所未見、且是我們兩三個世代所製造的危機！地球不會成長，因此經濟也不可能一直成長，這是永續發展基本的概念。資源是有限的，不要竭褶澤而漁；透過法律規範，讓人類活動對資源取用有節有度，是為政者責任，也是社會集體智慧的展現。與大家共勉！

＃看守台灣協會